


White Mattress Angel

by Lulu_The_Real_Slytherpuff



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Death of a Parent, Grief, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 00:19:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16671169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lulu_The_Real_Slytherpuff/pseuds/Lulu_The_Real_Slytherpuff
Summary: He didn’t know how to tell the brown-haired boy that his mother was confined to the white mattress that nobody dared call her temporary coffin, though he and his father and his younger siblings knew it.Character Study of TJ Kippen





	White Mattress Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all, this is currently unedited and unbeta'd
> 
> Warnings:  
> -implied child abuse  
> -references to death

She looks so small and frail lying in the sterile white hospital bed. A collection of monitors and wires and fluffy white pillows surround her like an army guarding its queen. TJ’s mother was an angel in white, thin diaphragm rising slowly and shakily and her skin translucent, pulled taut across her bones.

 

 _I got stuff,_ TJ had told Cyrus that day on the swings.

 

He didn’t know how to tell the brown-haired boy that his mother was confined to the white mattress that nobody dared call her temporary coffin, though he and his father and his younger siblings knew it. TJ didn’t know how to tell Cyrus that he hadn’t seen his mother’s mossy green eyes for four months. That Anna Kippen hadn’t uttered a word since she’d fallen down the steps and never woke back up.

 

He didn’t know how to tell Cyrus that Thomas Kippen left for work at 5 in the morning and didn’t come home till 3am smelling of cigarettes and whisky and whichever woman had taken his fancy that night. Sometimes the women came home too. They giggled loudly through the paper thin walls, and the thudding of his father’s metal bedframe rattled the walls so hard that dust would sprinkle down like dry rain and burn his throat. Thomas hadn’t been to visit his wife once since her accident.

 

 _My stuff, it’s different. You wouldn’t wanna hear it anyway,_ TJ tells Cyrus one day at The Spoon.

 

Mrs Turner, the landlord, cut off the electricity to the flat before dinner last night. Have you ever tasted cold ramen noodles, Cyrus? Nelly and Wes didn’t like it all too much but Thomas took all the money from the cookie jar and TJ needed to feed the young ones. He gets paid on Tuesday though so that means he can pay the bills and have just enough money left over for a loaf of bread. Maybe even a can of soda to share between the three of them if they’re lucky!

 

_It’s just stuff._

His mother died.TJ wishes he could make her death sound poetic but it was anything but. Thomas didn’t want to pay the hospital bills anymore. He switched the life support off.

 

“Say goodbye to Mommy, kids,” Thomas had said in the morning.

 

By noon she’d taken her last breath.

 

“I had her cremated straight away,” Thomas told TJ before he staggered off to another bar.

 

They didn’t even hold a funeral for her.

 

_Y’know you always ask about my stuff, what about yours?_

Cyrus is an open book, TJ learns. He asks the question and Cyrus doesn’t hold back. He’s a nervous person. He hates heights. Musicals are a gem. Sometimes he wishes his parents weren’t psychologists.

 

TJ spends the night over the yellowing toilet bowl. 

 

_My stuff, I-I want to tell you about it._

He doesn’t cry. Thomas beat the tears out of him years ago. Instead, his hands shake. Fingers tap an unrehearsed rhythm on his knee. His breath gets heavy and the world spins when he tells Cyrus about his angel. His mom.

 

And Cyrus doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. The hand that he tentatively locks with TJ’s says more than words could ever express.

 

 _I got stuff,_ TJ says as the door to his flat is sealed shut with a bright red sign and new locks.

 _I got suff,_ TJ says as he picks Nelly and Wes up from the floor and onto his back.

 _I got stuff,_ TJ says when Cyrus opens the door to three kids.

 

 _I know,_ Cyrus says eventually, standing to the side and gesturing to the inside of the house.

 

_Stay._

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, constructive criticism is always welcome and much appreciated:)
> 
> Please let me know if there is anything I need to tag that I have missed - I really don't want to trigger anyone, that is not my intention!


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